Great-Bliss-Tantric-Sex-and-the-Path-to-Inner-Awakening

you are permanently happy can you truly have ended all suffering. Recognizing that suffering is
intrinsic to life is the first noble truth. The Buddha saw three types of suffering: 1) ordinary
suffering - the suffering inherent in basic experiences of life, those of birth, old age, sickness and
death, 2) the suffering of change - where you find yourself happy for a while but then the
circumstances change and you lose what brought you happiness, and 3) all-pervasive suffering -
the subtle suffering of constantly seeking but never finding permanent happiness in this world.
Saṃsāra
Life in this world, and in others, is inescapably experienced as suffering and can continue for
infinite lifetimes. You are not truly free, but “conditioned” (samskṛita dharma) or compelled by
other forces, cosmic laws of which you are not even aware. Not knowing these realities and how
to attain freedom, you wander aimlessly in perpetual suffering or saṃsāra.
Impermanence
Nothing - no object, person, or experience - in this world can ever give you permanent happiness
because everything is subject to the law of impermanence (anitya), change and decay. Whatever
you think you need to be truly happy – family, work, lovers, money – will be gone someday.
Karma
Every action you take, good or bad, leads to a result based on the quality of the action and your
motivation. Negative actions bring painful results. Positive actions bring happiness, but it is
always only temporary. Not understanding the principle of karma (lit. action) is especially
dangerous, because strong negative actions can lead to intense and prolonged suffering.
Dependent Origination
Dependent Origination (pratītya saṃutpāda) is the universal law that propels you forward into
endless lifetimes of suffering. It is a continuous causal chain of events, driven by your desires,
aversions, and ignorance, that results in a perpetual cycle of birth, old age and death, and
prevents you from dwelling permanently in peace and bliss: 1) ignorance (avidyā), of the true
nature of reality, 2) actions (saṃskāra), that result in karmic imprints, 3) consciousness (vijñāna),
the faculties of your mind, 4) name and form (nāma rūpa), your mind tied to a body, 5) the six
sense organs (ṣaḍ āyatana), which produce sensations and perceptions, 6) contact (sparśa), the
meeting of senses, objects, and consciousness, 7) sensation (vedanā), the emotional and mental
registering of objects in your mind, 8) craving (tṛiṣṇā), the arising of desires, 9) grasping
(upādāna), your attempts to possess things to attain happiness, 10) becoming (bhava), the
ripening of the fruit of your desires and graspings that lead you perpetually into worldly
existence, 11) birth (jāti), of yourself into the world, and 12) old age and death (jarā maraṇa), and
the suffering they inevitably bring.
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